The only human structure that can be seen from space is in Spain

“the Great Wall of China “It is the only human structure that can be seen from space.” For decades, this phrase has been repeated ad nauseam, but in case the reader doesn't already know, it's simple mythIn fact, the legendary fortification cannot be observed even from low Earth orbit (200 to 2,000 kilometers above the surface), because it is so thin and blends in with its surroundings.

Although these types of urban legends abound (the same is also said about the Pyramids of Giza), what is true is that there is an artificial pathway that can be clearly seen from space: nothing less than the so-called “Sea of ​​Plastic” in Almeria.

It is a vast extension of agricultural greenhouses with an area of ​​more than 40 thousand hectares in the southwest of that Andalusian province, where a large part of fruits and vegetables (Between 2.5 and 3.5 million tons specifically) that are consumed in both Spain and Europe.

The first greenhouses date back to the 1970s, and since then their presence has grown to form the thousands of greenhouses today, from El Torrel to Aguadulce and El Campello del Morro. The reason for its great appearance is in Sunlight reflecting off plastic.

On May 24, 2022, NASA published images taken by Landsat's Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI), in which the patch of white polyethylene surfaces can be seen near the seashore, but already in 2007, the Spanish astronaut Pedro Duke He stressed that the only human structure that can be clearly seen from the International Space Station is this “white” emanating from southern Spain.